Frank Bisignano, the nominee for Social Security commissioner in the Trump administration, testifies before the Senate Finance Committee at his confirmation hearing on March 25, 2025. (Screenshot from Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration pledged Tuesday that if confirmed he’d ensure Americans can access customer service however they choose, though Democrats questioned how that would be possible if thousands of employees are fired and offices throughout the country are closed.

Social Security Commissioner nominee Frank Bisignano testified during a nearly three-hour hearing in the Senate Finance Committee that he wants to ensure beneficiaries have the option to visit an office, use the website, or speak to a real person after calling the 1-800 number.

“On the phone, I’m committed to reducing wait times and providing beneficiaries with a better experience; waiting 20 minutes-plus to get an answer will be of yesteryear,” Bisignano said. “I also believe we can significantly improve the length of the disability claim process.”

Bisignano promised lawmakers he would reduce the 1% error rate in payments, which he said was “five decimal places too high.” And he said repeatedly that personally identifiable information will be “protected.”

Elevator music

Democrats and Republicans on the panel repeatedly raised concerns about how long constituents already wait for their phone calls to be answered when they need to make changes or have an issue with their Social Security benefits.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said that on Monday to prepare for the hearing, his staff called the Social Security Administration’s customer service number, but were disconnected twice and then had to wait an hour while listening to “D-grade elevator music.”

“It could have at least had Olivia Newton-John or some mediocre 70s music,” Daines said while playing a recording of the hold music.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy asked Bisignano how he’d ensure potential changes at the Social Security Administration wouldn’t exclude seniors who are unable to attend in-person meetings at a field office.

Bisignano said he views the phone as a “mandatory way for people to communicate,” especially since the Social Security Administration received more than 80 million calls last year. 

“If you look at the Social Security website, and you look at the statistics, taking 20-plus minutes to answer the phone is not really acceptable,” Bisignano said. “And that’s the reason why only 46% of the phone calls get answered, because people get discouraged and hang up.”

Bisignano said he believes he can get wait times on the phone line down to under one minute.

“I think we can also help the people within the organization answer questions better by bringing artificial intelligence to them, to prompt them with the information they need,” Bisignano said.

Bisignano, of New Jersey, works as chairman of the board and chief executive officer at Fiserv, Inc., which “enables money movement for thousands of financial institutions and millions of people and businesses,” according to its website. The company is based in Wisconsin.

He previously worked as co-chief operating officer and chief executive officer of Mortgage Banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

DOGE pursues office closures

Democrats appeared unconvinced that proposed changes from the U.S. DOGE Service and Elon Musk would have a positive impact on the Social Security Administration.

“Earlier this month, at the direction of Elon Musk and DOGE, the administration announced plans to close 47 Social Security offices, including the one in Littleton, New Hampshire,” Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan said. “Shortly thereafter, the Social Security Administration announced plans that would force more applicants and beneficiaries to go in-person to offices, while at the same time laying off staff who work in those remaining offices. If the Littleton office is closed, North Country seniors would be forced to travel nearly 100 miles to the next closest New Hampshire field office.”

Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet criticized the Trump administration for announcing plans earlier this month to eliminate “access to a number of service options over the phone.”

“Instead, they’ll need to either use an online verification process or call to make an in-person appointment,” Bennet said. “The agency itself estimates that this will add 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week to field offices.

“As my colleagues have already said, wait times for appointments can already take a month. And that in-person appointment is only going to get harder to make if the agency cuts 7,000 employees and ends up with the lowest head count in decades.”

Minnesota Democratic Tina Smith said the Trump administration choosing to “drastically reduce phone service and force people to apply for benefits in person” while shuttering offices was unacceptable.

“So you can call this rank incompetence, or you can call it the don’t-know-don’t-care game plan that DOGE has taken across the board,” Smith said. “But to me, it honestly looks like sabotage.”

Bisignano testified that he, and no one else, would make the final decision about whether to close field offices.

“What I will commit to is that there will be no decision made without you knowing about it,” he said. “I have no intent to close field offices, but I’ve studied nothing on the topic. So, it’s a little hard to commit to something.”

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis urged Bisignano not to “pull any punches” on decisions about closing field offices.

“What you’re going to find out is, after you do the analytics, every member of Congress, except for me probably, will like your analytics, except to the extent that it affects one of their offices and their district or state,” Tillis said.

‘Fraudsters,’ newborns and layoffs

Bisignano distanced himself from some of the comments Trump administration officials have made about Social Security, though he appeared reluctant to do so.

He didn’t agree with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who said on a podcast that his mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if she missed a Social Security payment and that “the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen because whoever screams is the one stealing.”

“It would be hard to get to that conclusion,” Bisignano said.

He said he didn’t agree with trying to use Social Security as a political weapon, after Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto asked about news reports the acting Social Security commissioner tried to make changes to how Social Security numbers are issued to newborns in Maine.

“The current Social Security administrator briefly ended a contract that had allowed parents of newborn babies in Maine to sign their children up for a Social Security number at the hospital,” Cortez Masto said. “Instead, he required them to do so in-person at an office.”

“The current administrator, according to a New York Times article, said he had ordered the move after watching Gov. Janet Mills clash with Mr. Trump at the White House,” she added. “He then quickly reversed that decision, but said he did it because he felt that the governor of Maine was not being real cordial to the president.”

Bisignano appeared to reject the possibility of mass layoffs at the Social Security administration when asked about the issue by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“Do I think it’s a great idea to lay off half of the employees when a system doesn’t work? I think the answer is probably no,” Bisignano said.

Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch asked whether Bisignano would have taken the same approach to firing some federal workers that DOGE has, which Welch described as a “shoot first, aim later” system.

“No,” Bisignano said.

During another part of the hearing, Bisignano said that he believes his job as commissioner would be to “ensure that every beneficiary receives their payments on time, that disability claims are processed in the manner they should be.”

“So my first actions are going to be to get organized around delivering the services,” he said. “And I’ve only been given one order, which is to run the agency in the right fashion.”

Bisignano also rejected the possibility of privatizing Social Security.

“I’ve never thought about privatizing. It’s not a word that anybody’s ever talked to me about,” Bisignano said. “And I don’t see this institution as anything other than a government agency that gets run to the benefit of the American public.”

A Social Security Administration sign on a field office building in San Jose, California, in 2020. (Photo by Michael Vi/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Democrats warned Monday about President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s plans to pare down the Social Security Administration, an agency that pays out benefits to tens of millions of Americans.

Lawmakers, a Social Security recipient and a former commissioner cried foul over the U.S. DOGE Service and administration’s agenda to cut jobs, terminate office leases and change how Americans can contact the agency.

Trump and his top reelection campaign donor are “attacking Social Security through the back door by making it harder and harder for people to collect the benefits they are legally entitled to,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said during a virtual press briefing hosted by the Democratic National Committee.

“The world’s richest man may not understand what it means to worry about not getting a monthly Social Security check, but tens of millions of Americans know that fear deep down in their guts,” said Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development.

Just over 73 million Americans received retirement and disability benefits last month, according to the Social Security Administration.

The agency will distribute approximately $1.6 trillion in benefits this year, according to its own data. The program accounts for roughly one-fifth of federal spending.

Musk has a recent history of publicly attacking the agency. He told podcast host Joe Rogan in February that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Weeks later on Fox Business, Musk said to host Larry Kudlow that Social Security is “the big one to eliminate” when it comes to fraud and spending.

Job cuts, office closures

In early March, Musk’s DOGE announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs from Social Security and close numerous regional offices, according to media reports.

Despite potential office closures, the administration also plans a policy change that will require recipients to show up in person to verify certain changes to their accounts.

A federal judge Thursday temporarily restrained the Social Security Administration from sharing access to any sensitive files with DOGE.

“I can tell you that democracy is waking up to this very, very real threat that they are coming for Social Security,” former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley said during the briefing.

O’Malley, also a former governor of Maryland, accused the Trump administration of allowing wait times for the agency’s 1-800 number to skyrocket after he and former President Joe Biden worked to improve the hotline.

“Make no mistake about it, in order to rob Social Security, the co-presidency of Musk and Trump must sour enough Americans against the agency, undermine trust in the agency, and they do that by breaking and debilitating the agency’s ability to provide a high level of customer service,” O’Malley said.

Darlene Jones, a Social Security recipient from Arizona who had to retire early and still cares for an adult child with disabilities, told reporters on the call, “We worked our entire lives to own what we have. President Trump and shadow president Musk have to be stopped before they harm seniors, especially those in rural America.”

DNC Chair Ken Martin said Trump and Musk “sure as hell don’t know how much it costs to make dinner for a week, buy a bag of pet food or catch the bus every day.”

Social Security data shows that among beneficiaries 65 and older, roughly 12% of men and 15% of women rely on Social Security checks for 90% of their total income.

White House says intent to identify waste, fraud

In an emailed statement provided to States Newsroom, the White House brushed off the attacks.

“Any American receiving Social Security benefits will continue to receive them. The sole mission of DOGE is to identify waste, fraud, and abuse only,” according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Lee Dudek said in a press release Monday that the agency “is taking several important steps to increase transparency and accountability in order to help others understand our agency’s work and the complexities we navigate.”

Nearly 3,000 employees have either been placed on administrative leave or accepted offers to leave the agency in exchange for a one-time payment of up to $25,000, according to data linked in the press release.

Additionally, the agency plans to terminate 64 leases, saving roughly $4 million in annual rent.

Musk took to his social media platform X to defend the new policy change requiring in-person office visits as a way to avoid fraud.

Confirmation hearing

Trump’s pick to lead the agency, Frank Bisignano of New Jersey, president and CEO of Fiserv, will appear before the Senate Committee on Finance Tuesday.

Warren said she and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, top Democrat on the Finance Committee, co-wrote a letter to Bisignano this weekend to put him “on notice.”

“These new developments leave us deeply concerned that DOGE and the Trump Administration are setting up the SSA for failure — a failure that could cut off Social Security benefits for millions of Americans — and that will then be used to justify a ‘private sector fix,’” Warren and Wyden wrote.